Doesn't that rich chicken stock look delicious?
We call this Ming and Muppet's Soup because at it's base is a poached chicken and broth that comes from a recipe I adapted from Ming Tsai, and that appears in his great cookbook Simply Ming - One Pot Meals
As a cook, I’d love to be remembered as someone who took inspiration from my culinary heritage, but also relished making dishes my own, not feeling shackled by recipes, but rather enjoying the freedom to apply skills I’ve acquired over the years to bring new techniques and ingredients to my cooking. I’d also like to be remembered for the time I’ve spent cooking with my family, teaching my kids a few things about cooking before they head out on their own in the world.
Peyton and I rolled a bunch of these meat bombs the other night, inspired by a bag of basil marinara sauce I found in the bottom of our freezer (I know what you're thinking...enough with the freezer food already!) I'm starting to get concerned that the thing is bottomless.
The last time we crafted meatballs, we whipped up some chevre stuffed lamb beauties, but this time were in the mood for something a bit more traditional. I didn’t have a recipe handy, but recalled seeing a gorgeous looking meatball recently on my friend Rose’s great blog, The Bite Me Kitchen, so we went there for a look see.
What immediately struck me about Rose’s post was the photo of her large, solitary meatball, nestled into a deep pool of marinara, and topped with melting burrata cheese. I love the impact of serving one huge ball, rather than a few smaller ones, and the topping of melted cheese (we used a fresh mozzarella as we couldn’t find any burrata), makes for a very dramatic and tasty dish.
Making the balls takes just a few minutes, then a combination of cooking techniques; a quick bake, then a longer braise, renders the meatballs nicely browned, perfectly tender, and absolutely delicious. Serve these with Rose’s marinara, the one detailed below, or your favorite from scratch recipe.
Peyton and I used my kitchen scale to measure out six of these monsters to ensure no one cried foul, or felt ripped off by getting a ball any smaller than everyone else at the table....you must be careful about these things, you know. The marinara we used was leftover from the braciole we made earlier in the season.
Enjoy! - Steve
Recipe:
Monster Meatballs with Basil Marinara Sauce
By: Rose at "The Bite Me Kitchen" and Cucina Alessa (a So. Cal Restaurant)
Ingredients:
Method:
For the recipe we used to make our Basil Marinara, click here: Basil Marinara Sauce
Every now and again, even the best laid menu plans go awry, and we’re left with an abundance of certain ingredients in our pantry of fridge that are crying out for some creative use. Such was the case a few days ago when my wife noticed a few unopened packages of corn tortillas languishing in the back of the fridge, castaways from a planned fish taco feast that never materialized. Further inspection turned up a few half-eaten jars of tomato salsa, some shredded cheese, and a huge bag of baby spinach.
Whatever shall we do?
As I struggled the other day trying to decide whether to cook pasta with meat sauce or chili for Superbowl Sunday dinner, I thought of my friend Kathy Bechtel who writes the great cooking/travel blog "Chefbikeski", and a dish she had mentioned to me a while ago, Cincinnati Chili. Prior to our chat, I had never heard of the stuff before, and at first thought it was little more than a regional variant on chili that introduced a few different spices to distinguish the dish from something like a Texan chili, much in the same way BBQ is unique depending on where you eat it, be it Kansas City, Houston, or Memphis.
Bolognese.
Just this one word evokes all sorts of wonderful childhood memories for me. Nana’s Sunday “Gravy” was a staple of my early years, and if I close my eyes I can still see her tending her gently bubbling pot of sauce for hours, while all of us grandchildren took turns working alongside her, finessing the crank on her old Atlas pasta machine.
Some folks never stray far from the pasta sauce they grew up on, and my Nana’s (then my Mom’s) was certainly good enough to make me think twice before experimenting with other recipes. Over the years however, I came to enjoy bolognese in a wide range of styles, some at the hands of other home cooks, some while dining out or traveling abroad, and one in particular from a wonderful Italian restaurant in Bar harbor, ME.
As I mentioned in my last recipe post, my wife and I had the great pleasure to travel to the Veneto region of Italy recently with a fun group of folks and one of our favorite chefs, Jody Adams of Rialto Restaurant in Cambridge. The trip was organized by a terrific new tour company called "ItaliaOutdoors" that specializes in travel throughout the Veneto where their "guests enjoy tasting of provincial products, biking, walking, hiking or skiing in the local area, learning to cook regional foods, and relaxing evenings with lively discussion, excellent food and a few glasses of good wine!" Amen.
We were in HEAVEN, it was hard to come home.
This post marks my first entry in Foodbuzz’s Project Food Blog contest. The contest is a 10 part challenge to determine the “Next Food Blog Star”, with some bloggers eliminated after each qualifying round. This post is meant to satisfy the first challenge of the competition which is for me to define for my readers “who I am” as a food blogger. Now I'm not much of a grandstander, and don't have it in me to try to SELL you on why I should be voted a "star", but I absolutely believe in the mission of my blog, and hope that the brief introduction and post below give you a good sense for what we're all about here at "Oui, Chef". You can learn more about me and Project Food Blog by clicking on the contest widget to the right of this post. Voting for the 1st round entries starts on Monday, September 20th, and I’ll be writing a follow-up post in a few days describing how you can follow the competition, and vote me through to subsequent rounds if wish. Thanks!
Those of you who have been with us for a while here at “Oui, Chef” have gotten to know what we’re all about, but for those of you new to our little site, the story behind this post provides me an excellent opportunity to share with you our raison d’être.
The idea behind “Oui, Chef” came to me after I had read an article by Jamie Oliver on his efforts to improve the school lunch programs in his native England. As I contemplated his efforts, I started spending some time thinking about what it was that I wanted to teach MY kids about food, cooking, and how to feed themselves well in an environmentally responsible way, and the seeds for “Oui, Chef” were sewn.
I started to wonder why, among all the things we work so hard to teach our kids, cooking isn’t even on most people’s radar screen. We teach them to dress themselves, clean their rooms, wash behind their ears, and say no to drugs, but how many of us really take the time to teach our kids how to cook, and how to make responsible choices about what it is they put in their bodies? Now I’m not talking about “cooking” microwave popcorn or pre-packaged mac and cheese here, I know a boat load of kids that have microwave skills light years beyond mine. I’m talking about cooking real food, understanding where this food comes from, its effect on their health, and how the way it is grown and brought to market impacts our planet.
"Oui, Chef" now exists as an extension of my efforts to teach my kids a few things about cooking, and how their food choices over time effect not only their own health, but that of our local food communities and our planet at large. By sharing some of our cooking experiences, I hope to inspire other families to start spending more time together in the kitchen, passing on established familial food traditions, and maybe starting some new ones. My desire in the end is not just to enhance my young sous chefs’ culinary skills, but to advance their level of environmental awareness, and broaden their palates as well.
Each post you’ll find here on “Oui, Chef” touches on at least one of these points, either by introducing the kids to unfamiliar cuisines, teaching them a new cooking technique, or illuminating the nutritional and environmental consequences of our food choices; but I have to admit that it is a rare one that can tag all the bases.
Every now and again however, the stars align, and fate tosses us the seeds of a post that does more than just offer the kids a chance to hone their cooking skills on a new recipe, but one that gets them to think about their connection to place, and what impact their food choices make on the planet at large......the girls enjoyed an adventure earlier this summer that did just that.
I have yet to dine at either A Voce or Locanda Verde, Andrew Carmellini's wildly popular Manhattan restaurants, but they will certainly be on my hit-list the next time I'm in the Big Apple. I have become a big fan of Andrew's cooking since buying his terrific cookbook, Urban Italian: Simple Recipes and True Stories from a Life in Food
The first dish I cooked from the book has become my favorite way to eat swordfish, and I'm sure I'll be blogging that dish before long...think orange, olives, and harrisa...your mouth is already watering, yes?
I feel a bit silly writing about another braised dish given the onset of spring, but this dish is so good, I couldn't let it wait till autumn. I have also been re-thinking braises, and how they fit into my annual cooking calendar as of late. I don't know about you, but I have always viewed braises as cool weather dishes, and generally never cooked them between May and October. Of course, there has never been a written rule as to when it's OK to serve a stew or braise, but like wearing white shoes or pants before Memorial Day, it just wasn't done without having to endure the derision of the food elite.
I have found that these days, many chefs (myself included) are tossing out certain cooking rules and instituting some new ones. I recently read where Suzanne Goin, the fabulously talented chef / owner of "Lucques" in Los Angeles decided to "break the rules" and keep her braised short rib dish on her menu year round because it was in such high demand from her customers. So I'm thinkin' if it's OK for famous chefs in posh eateries to braise in warm weather, then it's OK for us too.
Continue reading "Braised Lamb with Peas, Dill and Sour Cream" »
"Oui, Chef" exists as an extension of my efforts to teach my kids a few things about cooking, and how their food choices over time effect not only their own health, but that of our local food communities and our planet at large. By sharing some of our cooking experiences, I hope to inspire other families to start spending more time together in the kitchen, passing on established familial food traditions, and starting some new ones. Read more...
